Legend of Kaulu.

Kukaohialaka was the father and Hinauluohia was the mother of three children, all boys. Kaeha was the first-born, Kamano was the second, and Kaulu was the youngest of the three. Kailua in Koolau [was] their birthplace. Kaeha the oldest brother loved and esteemed Kaulu; while Kamano hated and ill-treated Kaulu the youngest of their family. Kaulu was in his mother’s womb five years before he was born; at birth he already had a full set of teeth; his hair was long, and his buttocks covered with hair.

The reason why Kaulu stayed in his mother’s womb so long was because Kamano had said that he would kill the next child. On hearing this Kaulu stayed in the womb. When Kaeha the oldest brother heard that the next child was to be killed, he asked Kamano: “Why should you kill the next child?” When Kaulu heard Kaeha say this he said to himself while still in the womb: “There, I see I will live. You will save me. Well and good, if you save me then I will take care of you.”

When Kaulu was born he was in the form of a piece of rope, having no human form. When Kamano, the angry brother saw that it had no human form, he said: “If you had a human body I would kill you.” Kaeha on the other hand took up the piece of rope, Kaulu, and put him up on a shelf, where he remained until all of thirty days had gone by without being once looked at. Kaeha in the meantime had been carried off by the spirits and was left in a certain place in the sky, or heaven, called Lewanuu and Lewalani1 where Kane and Kanaloa had their home.

Kaulu remained on the shelf until he turned or received a human body. This shelf was used for the purpose of stowing away kapas. When he awoke he looked around the inside of the house and saw that his oldest brother Kaeha was missing. He then proceeded out of the house and looking up he saw that his brother had been carried up by the spirits to the Lewanuu and Lewalani. At this he started off in search of his brother Kaeha. Upon coming to where the heavy surf was beating he inquired of the surf: “I say, this high surf are you strong?” The surf replied: “Yes.” Kaulu asked: “What is your strength?” “I strike from above and when I catch them I give them a good soaking,” said the surf. Eight surfs then struck Kaulu, but he was not injured. Kaulu then asked of his hands: “Say, Hakaukahi my right hand and Limapaihala my left hand.” “What is it?” asked the two hands. “Flamed is the upper jaw, flamed is the lower jaw.”2 Kaulu then reached for the surf and broke it into small pieces, thus making the surf small unto this day. He then continued on his way until he met other [524]demigods, the small and large waves to whom he said: “You are only making the ocean look white, you have no strength.” The waves replied: “We are strong and also brave.” A fight was then had in which he killed both of his opponents; therefore the waves are small to this day. After this he continued on his way until he met Kuililoloa, a dog that was guarding the land and the sea. Another battle was fought in which Kuililoloa was torn to pieces, therefore the dogs are small to this day.

When Kaulu arrived in the land where his brother was living, he approached the house and hid himself within the leaf of a palm tree. At dusk that evening the spirits asked Kaeha: “Let us prepare some awa.” They then all got some awa and prepared the awa to be pounded. After pounding a sufficient quantity, Kaeha went out to cool himself. Upon seeing Kaeha Kaulu came out of his hiding place and met his brother. At seeing this small fellow Kaeha asked: “Who is this small boy?” “I am Kaulu, your youngest brother, whom you placed on the shelf. Because I love you I came to look for you.” Kaeha then said: “We are going to drink awa with the spirits.” Kaulu said: “Yes, tell the spirits to drink their awa first and you take yours after them. Before you drink yours offer a little to me as your god by repeating the following words: “Here is our awa.” I will then answer back: “Drink it and let me have the portion that is intoxicating.” At the close of the conference held by the two Kaulu returned to the palm leaf, while Kaeha returned to the house to join the spirits. Upon entering the house the spirits said to Kaeha: “Drink your awa first.” Kaeha replied: “No.” The spirits then drank theirs up. After the spirits had finished, Kaeha said to the spirits: “Now you be quiet until after I have taken my awa.” Kaeha then took up his cup of awa and offered up a prayer:

[A loud voice was then heard to call out:]

When the spirits heard this loud call they began pinching one another and said: “What a wonderfully loud-voiced god you have, Kaeha.” Because of this trick played by Kaeha and Kaulu, Kane and Kanaloa were puzzled, so they sent Kolea and his mate to fly up to Makalii and inquire of him as to the meaning of the loud-voiced god of Kaeha. Upon the arrival of Kolea and his mate in the presence of Makalii, Makalii asked them: “What do you two want?” “We have been sent by Kane and Kanaloa to ask you about the loud-voiced god that calls out at night.” Makalii replied: “That is Kaulu the youngest brother of Kaeha. He is all-powerful and strong and he is hiding in the palm leaf.”

Upon the return of Kolea and his mate in the presence of Kane and Kanaloa, they repeated what they had been told by Makalii. On hearing the report, the spirits went out and searched for Kaulu in the palm leaf, but could not find him. After this it became a general thing for the spirit to get intoxicated on awa. One night Kaulu brought in some large stones and placed them on the place where the spirits slept at night. In the middle of the night the spirits woke up and bumped their heads against them. The gods called to one another regarding these stones.

Because of these tricks played by Kaulu on the spirits, they tried to find fault about Kaeha in order to find cause for putting him to death; so one day the spirits said [526]to Kaeha: “You must find your own food3 after this as you have eaten all of ours.” So Kaeha was forced to go about from place to place looking for food. When Kaulu saw Kaeha going from place to place he knew what he wanted so he took Kaeha with him and flew to Manowaikeoo, a land owned by Kane and Kanaloa, where all the food belonging to the spirits was raised. The place was guarded by four men, Uweliki, Uweleka, Maalaka and Maalaki. These men watched in pairs. In the watch of Maalaka and Maalaki Kaulu and Kaeha were seen so they turned the face of the land downward causing a deep depression in the land whereby Kaulu and Kaeha fell off the land into space. When Kaulu saw that they were in trouble he called out:

Through the reaching powers of Kaulu they were able once more to land when Kaulu grabbed Maalaka and Maalaki, saying: “I am going to kill you two.” They answered: “If we die there will be no guards fit to watch the land.” This, Kaulu acknowledged. Kaulu and Kaeha then continued on their way until they found Uweleki and Uweleka on the other side of the land, who asked: “What do you two want?” Kaulu replied: “All the good things to eat.” The guards thinking that Kaulu could in no way take all the good things as he was a very small fellow, allowed Kaulu to have all he wanted. At this Kaulu took all he could find and eat up all the things he could lay his hands on: the food, the fish, the pork, the chickens, all the things that were growing and all that had been planted; Kaulu took everything that could be found and then flew up and hid the rays of the sun causing darkness. At this the guards begged of Kaulu to give them back some of the food as seed for propagation, so he gave them one taro top, one potato leaf, one hog, one chicken and so on to the end of the good things, so Kaulu and Kaeha returned to Kane and Kanaloa.

After tasting the different things, Kane and Kanaloa were sure the things tasted just like the good things of of Manowaikeoo. Upon making this discovery Kane and Kanaloa sent Kolea and his mate to fly and inquire of Makalii5 where these good things had come from. Upon their arrival, Makalii told them that these good things were from Manowaikeoo which place had been invaded by Kaulu. On their arrival in the presence of Kane and Kanaloa, they reported what they had heard from Makalii. Upon hearing the report all the spirits got angry with Kaulu and Kaeha, so all the spirits began to tempt Kaeha and urged him to go surf-riding. When they arrived at the place where the surf was breaking, the spirits called for all the sharks to come together and take Kaeha and carry him to their king, Kukamaulunuiakea. This was a very large shark, his length and breadth were unknown. When his mouth was opened the top jaw would reach to heaven while the bottom jaw would be in the bottom of the sea; its body was entirely covered over with coral. As Kaeha came in the presence of the shark, he was swallowed whole. Kaulu at this time was not on his guard which was the reason [528]why his brother was successfully carried away. After a while Kaulu discovered that his brother was missing, so he inquired of the spirits where his brother had gone to. Upon being told that they knew nothing about him, Kaulu then felt that he was dead. He then proceeded to the seashore, stooped down and drank up the sea so that all the fish were stranded, dry. Kaulu then began to make a search for his brother in all the different man-eating fish, the common shark, the tiger shark and the hihimanu, but he was unable to find him. He then searched in all the four corners of the sea and still Kaeha was not to be found. Kaulu then flew up to Makalii to enquire of him for the whereabouts of Kaeha. When he came up to Makalii he found him lying down with his face turned up. Kaulu then pinched his mons veneris at the same time calling him: “Dead you are, Makalii. What have you to say?” Makalii replied: “Your oldest brother is in a shark.” Kaulu asked: “Tell me of him.” While Kaulu was asking these questions of Makalii, Koeleele, a younger brother of Makalii, came in with a large rock, called Ikuwa, which was larger than the island of Maui. Koeleele was a man who had a very bad temper and he was a very powerful man. At sight of Kaulu he threw the rock at him, but Kaulu braced up his fore- or poi finger and held the rock up and then said: “Say, the rock from the mighty one is held up, isn’t it?” When Koeleele heard this he ran away, thus saving himself from Kaulu.

Kaulu then asked of Makalii: “Tell me the shark that swallowed my brother and also the place where the shark lives.” Makalii then looked, but he was unable to see anything below them, so he chewed some kukui nuts and blew the oily substance over the atmosphere beneath them which caused it to be clear and he was thus enabled to locate the shark which had swallowed Kaeha. Makalii then pointed him out to Kaulu at the same time saying: “It is the one overgrown6 with coral.”

Upon the arrival of Kaulu at the place and found the mass of coral, he asked: “Have you seen my brother?” The king of the sharks, Kukamaulunuiakea, said: “I have swallowed him, he is now within me all digested.” Kaulu again asked the shark: “Are you strong?” “Yes, I can reach the heaven with my upper jaw and the bottom of the ocean with my lower jaw.” Kukamaulunuiakea then opened its mouth. As soon as this was done Kaulu propped it open while he called for his brother to come out. Kaeha then came out. His hair had all fallen off making him bald headed. Kukamaulunuiakea was thereupon slain by Kaulu and its spirit flew up to heaven and it turned into the Milky Way7 as seen at midnight, from ancient time to the present day. Kaulu and Kaeha then returned and Kaulu vomited out the sea water. Kaeha was in front and Kaulu in the rear, as the ocean was restored. It is said that owing to this action of Kaulu the sea water became salty to this day.

When the spirits looked and saw Kaulu and Kaeha returning, they said amongst themselves: “So Kaeha is not dead.” After this the spirit again tempted Kaeha and enticed him to go and play swing. So the spirits and Kaeha proceeded to where a swing was rigged up, when they remarked to Kaeha: “You take the first ride while we push the swing for you.” While this conversation was going on, Kaulu arrived and in a cunning way said: “Say, if you all wish to take a ride on the swing, I will pull the [530]rope.”8 He then proceeded to instruct them how to ride the swing. “In my country we ride the swing by sitting facing one another to the full length or top of the rope; then the swing is pulled and the pleasure begins.” In this way all those spirits were killed, by the swing breaking. When the remaining spirits saw this trick played on them by Kaulu, they thought they would get even with him by again enticing Kaeha to go with them for rod-fishing. On this fishing excursion Kaeha was killed and he was put in the shell of a bitter opihi,9 the kind that sticks to the smooth boulders. On missing Kaeha, Kaulu went in search of him until he discovered him in an opihi; but on account of its smooth surface he was unable to get the opihi from the boulder, so he urinated on the opihi, which released Kaeha. This action caused all the opihi of this kind to become bitter to this day, and it has always been known from that day as the bitter opihi.

After Kaeha was brought to life again by Kaulu they returned to live on Oahu. When they arrived at Papakolea, Moanalua, Kaulu left Kaeha at this place while he continued on his way to Kapalama in search of Haumea. Haumea was a spirit that lived at Niuhelewai, Oahu. It was a female spirit. Upon the arrival of Kaulu he found Haumea asleep. Kaulu then called: “Say, Haumea, why don’t you get up, cook your food and afterwards fight with Kaulu?” Haumea then sat up while Kaulu returned home and then flew up to Makalii who asked him: “What is it you want, Kaulu?” “I have come for the net.10 Give it to me so that I will be able to kill Haumea.” Makalii then gave him his nets, Maoleha and its mate. Kaulu then returned and again found Haumea asleep. Kaulu then surrounded the house with the nets, after which he called out to Haumea: “Are you to continue on sleeping? Why don’t you get up and let us fight?” Haumea then woke up and tried this way and that to get out of the house. Kaulu kept at some distance away from the house and ran around it. At seeing Kaulu running around, Haumea attempted to get after him and was entangled in the net where she was caught and killed. Kaulu then went for Kaeha and they returned to Kailua [Oahu] their birthplace where their parents were then living.

Lonokaeho was the king of Koolau at this time and he was living at Kailua. He had a very prominent forehead and was called Piokeanuenue. Soon after the return of Kaulu to Kailua he went to the king’s house and asked the king’s attendants: “Who is that man with the sharp forehead?” “Lonokaeho,” replied one of the attendants. They then called for Lonokaeho, saying: “Here is a youngster who is calling you names.” “What did he say?” “Who is that man with the sharp forehead?” Lonokaeho then said: “Are you strong, coming to Lonokaeho’s place in this way?” Kaulu replied: “I have a little strength but not much.” Lonokaeho’s forehead then ascended to heaven and came down again, with the idea of striking Kaulu and killing him; but Kaulu said:

[532]

Kaulu’s hands then asked: “What is it?” Kaulu replied: “The upper jaw, hold it up; the lower jaw, hold it down.” Lonokaeho’s forehead was thus made fast to the ground; the ohia trees and the grass grew over him and Lonokaeho was killed on that famous hill of Olomana, which stands to this day.

Kaulu and Kaeha then lived together until the death of Kaeha, when Kaulu took unto himself a wife, Kekele by name. Kekele was a very handsome woman whose breath and skin were as sweet as the inamona.11 She was a very quiet woman. Her favorite flowers and vines were the hala, maile, ieie and all the fragrant leaves. When she retired at night she used to sleep with her hala wreaths and would wear them until they were dried up; therefore the hala at Kekele was planted for her and it grows to this day. They lived as husband and wife until their death without having any children. [523]